March for Nature: Thousands protest Conservation Amendment Bill in Auckland

Thousands took to Auckland’s streets to march against the Government’s controversial Conservation Amendment Bill today. Photo / D Zapata

Thousands took to Auckland’s streets to march against the Government’s controversial Conservation Amendment Bill today.

The March for Nature, organised by Greenpeace Aotearoa and Forest and Bird, hoped to send the message “hands off conservation land” to the Government.

The organisers estimated 35,000 attended the full protest.

Police estimated the numbers at Te Komititanga Square, where the event concluded, to be about 6000.

The proposed law change would amend the 1987 Conservation Act to require the Department of Conservation (DoC) to recognise the “economic opportunities that arise from the use and development of land and other resources managed by the department, and to enable this use and development to the greatest extent practicable”.